The chapter focuses on the relationship between humans and the environment, with technology mediating their interaction. It examines how nature can be viewed as both a physical concept and a social construction. The remainder of the chapter traces selected cultures' interactions with nature, from early human transformations of the environment to more recent impacts of European expansion and globalization. Recent anthropogenic environmental changes, like pollution and deforestation, have had global consequences due to increasing globalization.

1. Human Geography: Places and
Regions in Global Context, 5e
Chapter 4: Nature and Society
Paul L. Knox & Sallie A. Marston
PowerPoint Author: Keith M. Bell

2. Overview
This chapter focuses on the relationship between human beings and their
environment, with technology as a mediating force between them. An important point
is that the environment, as nature, must be viewed as a social concept or
construction as well as the physical universe. As a social construction, the idea or
interpretation of nature may vary across different cultures and societal groups.
Moreover, this understanding of nature may change over time. Students should be
aware that the Western understanding of nature, largely derived from the Judeo-
Christian religious tradition, is only one of many possible ways of understanding and
making sense of nature.
The remainder of the chapter traces the interaction between society and nature in
selected cultures. The chapter looks at the transformation of the environment by
early humans, before turning to more recent interactions. Among the most influential
of these was the Columbian Exchange, or interaction between the Americas and the
other continents as part of the conquest and settlement of the Americas by
Europeans. Human actions in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have had an
even greater impact on the environment than did events of previous centuries. The
latter part of the chapter explores recent environmental problems and their links to
the process of globalization. Students should remember that with the process of
globalization, environmental impacts and problems also become global in scope.

3. Chapter Objectives
• The objectives of this chapter are to:
– Understand nature as a concept
– Investigate Earth’s transformation by ancient
humans
– Explore European expansion and
globalization
– Examine recent environmental change
through human action

4. Chapter Outline
• Nature as a Concept (p. 128) • European Expansion and
– Rachel Carson and the birth of Globalization (p. 144)
modern environmentalism – Disease and depopulation in the
– Nature is partially a social Spanish colonies
construction – The Columbian Exchange
– Cultural ecology and political • Human Action and Recent
ecology Environmental Change (p. 148)
– U.S. environmental philosophies – Environmental problems deriving
– Origins of the concept of “nature” from burning of fuels
• The Transformation of Earth by – Environmental problems deriving
Ancient Humans (p. 139) from land-clearing
– Paleolithic impacts • The Globalization of the
– Neolithic peoples and Environment (p. 163)
domestication – Environmental politics and political
– Early settlements and their organization
environmental impacts – Environmental sustainability
• Conclusion (p. 169)

5. Geography Matters
• 4.1 Geography Matters—Cultural Ecology
and Political Ecology (p. 136)
– Latin American and American Southwest examples of
these two approaches
• 4.2 Window on the World—Peak Oil (p. 152)
– “Peak Oil” theory and the rate of global petroleum
depletion
• 4.3 Geography Matters—Global Climate
Change (p. 164)
– Global Climate Change as an international issue, and
mitigation efforts

6. Nature and Society
Nature and Society constitute a
complex relationship. Nature is both a
physical realm and a social creation.
The most prominent view of nature in
Western culture is derived from the
Judeo-Christian tradition, which is
founded on a belief that humans should
dominate nature.
The early human history included
people who revered nature, as well as
those who abused it.
Urbanization and industrialization have
had extremely degrading impacts on the
environment.
Globalization of the political economy
has meant that environmental problems
are global in scope.
Sustainability has become a
predominant way of approaching
global economic development and
environmental change.

7. Nature as a Concept
2002 Earth Summit Deformities in frogs
One model of the nature–society relation is that nature limits or shapes society,
called environmental determinism. Another model posits that society also shapes and
controls nature, which in itself is a very complex relationship.

8. Nature and Society Defined
• Nature is a social creation as much as it is the
physical universe that includes human beings.
• Society is the sum of the inventions, institutions, and
relationships created and reproduced by human
beings across place and time.
• Technology is:
– Physical objects or artifacts
– Activities or processes
– Knowledge or know-how

9. Global Emissions
of Carbon Dioxide
Each square represents one year’s
global emissions of carbon dioxide,
measured by the weight of carbon it
contains.
Industrial countries have higher
carbon dioxide emissions,
contributing to rising temperatures
through the trapping of heat in
Earth’s atmosphere.
The rural poor are often impelled to
degrade their immediate environment
by cutting forests for fuel wood,
plants which would otherwise take in
carbon dioxide and cool Earth’s
surface.
Thus, both the core and the periphery
are contributing to the problem of
global climate change.

10. Generalized Aquatic
Food Chain
This illustration of the food
chain in a Long Island estuary
demonstrates the nineteenth-
century naturalist’s view.
Although most ecosystems
have complex food chains
containing numerous
relationships among the
different parts, one rule holds
for all:
The higher the entity is in a
food chain, the fewer there are
of it.

11. Nature and Society Defined
The Dong Family: Urban The Cuis Family: Weitai
setting Village
The “I = P A T” formula relates human population pressures on environmental
resources to the level of affluence and the access to technology in a society.
Compare these families’ level of affluence. Whose meal traveled the farthest to get
to their table? How far does your food travel to get to you?

12. Cultural Ecology and Political
Ecology
• The cultural ecology approach
incorporates three key points:
– Cultural groups and the
environment are interconnected
by systemic interrelationships.
– Cultural behavior is examined as
a function of the cultural group’s
relationship to the environment
through both material and
nonmaterial cultural elements.
– Most studies in cultural ecology
investigate food production in
rural and agricultural settings in
the periphery in order to
understand how change affects
the relationship between cultural
groups and the environment.

13. West Nile Virus in California
The relationship between people and the environments they create (e.g.,
an abandoned pool) that encourage the proliferation of mosquitoes
explains the “Ecology” part of political ecology. But the political part is
also important.

14. U.S. Environmental Philosophies
and Political Views of Nature
• Henry David Thoreau
– Walden; often credited as the
originator of U.S. ecological
philosophy
• Ralph Waldo Emerson
– Transcendentalism
• George Perkins Marsh
– Man and Nature, or Physical
Geography as Modified by Human
Action
• Gifford Pinchot and Theodore
Roosevelt
• Rachel Carson
– Silent Spring

15. U.S. Political Views of Nature
• Conservation and
Preservation
• Ecoterrorism
• Environmental Ethics
• Ecofeminism
– Wangari Maathai,
Kenyan environmental
activist (photo)
• Deep Ecology
• Environmental Justice

16. Paleolithic Impacts
Clovis Points: New Mexico, Cave Paintings: Southern
United States France

17. The Settlement of the World
Early Stone Age people constantly moved over great distances (hunting and
foraging for food), which ultimately made them a dispersed species. The
map depicts over one million years of migration and potential settlement.

18. Neolithic Peoples and Domestication
Massive animal kills Wheat and flint sickle blade
The credit for the development of agriculture—a technological triumph with
respect to nature—goes to the Neolithic (or late Stone Age) peoples and occurred
about 10,000 years ago.

19. Irrigation System Near El Centro, Southern
California
Poorly informed management may have led to the demise of the ancient
Mesopotamian cities, but increasingly saline soils also currently plague
agriculture in California and southwestern Arizona. Siltation and
deforestation have been problematic for a substantial portion of human
agricultural history.

20. European Voyages of Exploration
This map shows the voyages and missions of Columbus, Pizarro, Cabral, and
Cortés. Columbus’ contact with the Americas became a watershed historic event,
forever changing the world.

21. Population Growth and Environmental Change
Exponential population growth, coupled with environmental modification (such as this
pottery furnace in China), have stressed ecosystems. E. O. Wilson created the HIPPO
acronym to describe the loss of biological diversity and extinction: Habitat destruction,
Invasive species, Pollution, Population, and Overharvesting. (Source: The Future of Life)

22. The Impact of Energy Needs on the
Environment
Coal mining A tanker oil spill
From mountain-top mining in West Virginia to Gulf War oil well fires
in Kuwait, nuclear waste disposal in Novaya Zemlya to global warming,
our desire for industrial fuels is having a dramatic impact on the planet.

23. Disease and Depopulation in
Spanish Colonies
• Little disagreement exists among historians that European
colonization of the New World was eventually
responsible for the greatest loss of human life in history.
– Virgin soil epidemics: where the population at risk has no
natural immunity or previous exposure to the disease
– Columbian Exchange: interaction between the Old and New
Worlds initiated by the voyages of Columbus
– Demographic collapse: phenomenon of near genocide of native
populations
– Ecological imperialism: the introduction of exotic plants and
animals into a new ecosystem

24. Tenochtitlan, circa 1500
The Aztec capital, Tenochtitlan (as painted by Miguel Covarrubias), was
built on an island in the middle of a large lake (today called Lake
Texcoco). The Aztec were responsible for dramatic environmental
modifications through cultivation techniques, such as the chinampas, or
“floating gardens” depicted above.

25. Global Deforestation
A net loss in forests acreage around the Amazon Basin is troubling, but dramatic
gains in forests in Scandinavia and the Appalachians is impressive. Can we reverse
the trend of deforestation and species loss?

26. Global Energy Issues
Predictions of future oil
Global natural gas reserves production
Energy experts predict output by Gazprom, Russia’s state-owned natural gas
monopoly, will decline due to poor investments in technology. Energy Watch
Group’s prediction for the global oil supply shows a marked decline in production.

27. Nuclear Reactors, 2008
Most of the dependence on nuclear power is concentrated in core countries. For example,
France has 59 nuclear reactors in 20 locations, providing 77 percent of the total electrical
output. The United States has 104 reactors producing nearly one-fifth of its output.

28. Percentage of Hydropower, 2002
Three Gorges Dam, China

29. Impacts of Land-Use Change on the
Environment
Conversion is the wholesale transformation of land from one use to another (for
example, felling a forest for development). Modification is an alteration of existing
cover (for example, when a grassland is stripped bare by too many grazing
animals).

30. “Development” of Nature
A review of old probate records shows that “unimproved” land was valued less than
“improved” (i.e., cleared) land. Our modern concept of nature is valued in capital worth,
not intrinsic value. Edward Abbey, the famed environmentalist, once wrote: “Growth for
the sake of growth is the ideology of the cancer cell.”

31. Global Acid Emissions

32. Global Climate Change
• Greenhouse Gases (GHGs):
– Water vapor
– Carbon dioxide
– Methane
– Nitrous oxide
– Chlorofluorocarbons
– Ozone
• Observations of Climate Change
• Observed Effects of Climate
Change
• Causes of Climate Change
(Natural and Anthropogenic)
• Some Projected Impacts
• Mitigation Efforts

33. Global Climate Change
This diagram represents human-
induced drives, impacts of and
responses to climate change, and their
linkages.

34. End of Chapter 4

35. • Romanticism and Transcendentalism were largely literary and
artistic movements that also had an impact on environmental
thought. What were some of the literary and artistic products of
these movements, and how did they demonstrate a concern with
nature? Though both movements are now out of fashion, how is
their impact felt today? Are there any examples of neo-Romantic
or neo-Transcendentalist movements?
– One of the best-known Romantic novels is Mary Shelley’s
Frankenstein—its theme is the destruction caused by humankind’s
tampering with nature. Henry David Thoreau’s Walden is perhaps the
most notable example of Transcendental naturism, as are Ralph
Waldo Emerson’s essays. Romantic and Transcendental ideas still
are very much a part of much contemporary thinking about the
environment and have heavily influenced the preservationist
perspective on the environment, as well as various environmental
groups.

36. • Conservation and Preservation were movements that
flourished in the United States in the early twentieth
century. Both are still prominent today—Conservation
in the form of government agencies such as the U.S.
Forest Service and the “Wise Use” movement, and
Preservation in the form of the Sierra Club and allied
organizations. Both movements demonstrate a
concern over how the environment, and especially
public lands, are used. How, then, are the movements
different?
– Conservation is primarily concerned with managing and
stewarding (but not exploiting) natural resources so that they
can be sustainably used by human beings. Preservation
advocates preserving and protecting some natural resources
for their own sake.

37. • A common American myth is that of a pristine,
untouched natural environment in North America prior
to European conquest and settlement. In fact,
indigenous cultures had noticeable impacts on their
environments, often with negative consequences.
Discuss the environmental changes taking place in
pre-conquest America. How did the impact of these
changes differ from the impacts after conquest?
– An excellent source for this discussion is the series of articles
on “The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in
1492” in the Annals of the Association of American
Geographers, Vol. 82, No. 3, 1992.

38. • Discuss notable impacts of the Columbian Exchange.
What products were “exchanged”?
– Students should be aware that some items, such as corn, chili
peppers, chocolate, tomatoes, potatoes, and tobacco were
native to the Americas and did not exist in Europe until after
the fifteenth century. Speculate on how European culinary
practices and foods might have been different before the
exchange (no tomatoes in Italian cooking, for example), and
how the exchange impacted these practices. Then consider
the impacts of products brought by Europeans into the
Americas, especially wheat, cattle, sheep, and horses (horses
and other animals transformed many Native American
societies, for example).

39. • What are the major sources of energy in the
world today? Which of these are most
important in the United States? What are the
costs and benefits associated with each
energy source?
– Major sources of energy include fossil fuels (oil,
natural gas, coal) and nuclear fuels, as well as
renewable sources such as hydropower and
biomass (wood, charcoal, crop waste, dung). The
United States is highly dependent on fossil and
nuclear fuels.

40. • Why has the amount of land covered by
forests been steadily decreasing
throughout human history? What
environmental and social impacts has
this deforestation had?
– Forest land has been cleared for a variety of
reasons including settlements, farming,
grazing, and obtaining wood for fuel.

41. • What is the difference between cultural
ecology and political ecology, in terms of
questions asked and research results?
– Cultural ecologists study the material and
nonmaterial practices of cultural groups in order to
understand how cultural processes affect groups’
adaptation to the environment. Political ecology
additionally incorporates political and economic
relationships. See the Geography Matters 4.1 boxed
text for further information.

42. • What impacts has uranium mining had
on the interests of indigenous peoples in
Australia?
– For information on this topic consult David
Lawrence, Kakadu: The Making of a
National Park (Melbourne:
Miegunyah/Melbourne University Press,
2000) and do Internet searches for
“Jabiluka” to get the most recent information.

43. • Using Figures 4.23 and 4.24, compare
different kinds of fuels in use. What
patterns are noticeable?
– Nuclear reactors for nuclear power
production are mainly found in core regions,
whereas high fuelwood use is mainly a
practice of the periphery. These differences
are largely related to national wealth.